Single carrier wireless telecommunications systems are known. In those systems, radio coverage is provided to user equipment, for example, mobile telephones, by geographical area. A base station is located in each geographical area to provide required radio coverage. User equipment in an area served by a base station receives information and data from a base station and transmits information and data to a base station.
Information and data transmitted by a base station to user equipment occurs on channels of radio carriers known as “downlink carriers”. Information and data transmitted by user equipment to a base station occurs on uplink data channels of radio carriers known as “uplink carriers”.
An area served by a base station typically comprises several sectors which together define a coverage area for that base station. Typically, a base station serves three sectors. Those sectors are typically served by separate antenna arrays provided on a base station.
It is possible to allow base stations and user equipment to each transmit simultaneously on more than one carrier. Furthermore, it is possible to allow user equipment and base stations to receive simultaneously on more than one carrier frequency. Such multi-carrier networks allow for an increase in data throughput across the network when the network is busy. However, those same networks typically require provision of an increase in hardware and increased power consumption to provide full functionality, which may not be energy efficient when data traffic across the network is low.
It is desired to provide a multi-carrier network having improved power consumption characteristics.